Florida Bests Penn State to Stay Perfect in ALC Play

In-Game Blog Replay

Florida midfielder Sam Darcangelo
was the weapon that Penn State couldn't defend against.

In a battle between the top two – and to the start of the
game, only unblemished – teams in the ALC, the No. 5 Gators
held off the No. 13 Nittany Lions to improve to 3-0 in the league
and take the early driver's seat in the chase for the league
tournament's top seed, 13-9.

"I just really saw the ball well off the draw," said Darcangelo,
who had a goal, two assists, and a career high seven draw controls.
"I was focusing on boxing my girl out and help out the team."

The sophomore has been essential for the Florida Gators on the
draw circle. She has a season total of 43 draw controls, behind
only junior star Shannon Gilroy, who also had a big game to stifle
the Nittany Lions wit four goals, six draw controls and five ground
balls.

Coming into the second half,
Florida faltered and Penn State took advantage, putting themselves
only three points from tying up the game and possibly taking a
win.

It was Gilroy and Darcangelo that stopped Penn State from
gaining anymore on them.

"We were losing the draw control in the second half, that kind
of swung the momentum the other way," Darcangelo said. "Our defense
came up with some big saves. We just needed to relax again, then
Shannon (Gilroy) has these amazing goals and that gets us all
worked up."

Penn State had a rough first half, Gilroy managed to score three
of her four goals of the day in the first half alone and the Penn
State defense was having trouble playing man-to-man defense against
Florida because of the need to cover Gilroy with two or three
defenders at a time would leave another Florida player open to make
the shot.

The Nittany Lions used their halftime to identify the issue and
find a way to stop the Florida offense from duplicating its first
half.

"We needed to adjust and I think it took us too long to adjust
to what they were doing offensively and what they were doing
defensively," said Florida coach Amanda O'Leary. "We need to be
able to recognize that and make changes on the field. I don't think
we had a very good second half to be quite honest."

With wins over the Nittany Lions
and conference bohemouth already, Florida will close out its
regular season with three straight conference tilts leading into
the league tournament. Penn State, takes on Northwestern this week
which will likely determine the second spot in the league behind
Florida.